IQALUIT, Nunavut – Nunavut has tabled an almost-balanced budget for the coming year with a focus on health and family support services.

Finance Minister Keith Peterson told the territorial legislature Thursday that he expects a tiny deficit of $3.9 million on total spending of $1.7 billion.

“In other words, it’s very, very small,” he said. “The more that we manage our funds prudently, and the less that we draw on our contingency funds, the more likely we will be to show a small surplus at the end of the year.”

The territory did come out ahead for the current 2015-16 fiscal year, which ends March 31, by registering a similarly minuscule surplus of about $16 million.

Overall, little has changed for Nunavut’s finances.

Revenues are expected to increase by less than one per cent. Overall spending will be within four per cent of last year’s total.

About 90 per cent of those revenues will come from the federal government, a slightly higher percentage than previously.

The biggest increases in spending will go to health and social services as Nunavut tries to address deep-seated and long-standing problems. The Children and Family Services Department is to get an extra $13.5 million — an 11 per cent increase. An $8-million boost to social assistance represents a 20 per cent raise.

The Department of Health is to receive a six per cent increase in funding to $21 million.

Peterson is hoping real changes to Nunavut’s financial picture come from Ottawa. Last December, he made a case to his federal counterpart, Bill Morneau, for nearly $800 million over five years for housing and upgrades to the diesel generators that provide most of Nunavut’s power.

Of 17 generators in the territory, 13 are at least 35 years old, Peterson said.

The need for housing is just as dire. The current budget plans to spend about $180 million for housing, but Nunavut faces a housing backlog of up to 4,000 homes — about $1.5 billion in construction, Peterson estimates. It’s not unusual for communities to have long-term waiting lists of 100 families for social housing.

The money that already comes to Iqaluit from Ottawa isn’t enough for those kinds of problems, said Peterson.

“That essentially just meets our basic expenditure needs, just to fund our government,” he said. “If you’re talking billions of dollars infrastructure and housing deficits, we’re not going to be able to address our needs on $200 million a year.”

Nunavut is also asking the federal government for cash toward four major infrastructure projects.

Together with the Northwest Territories, Nunavut wants to build an all-weather road from Yellowknife to the Arctic coast through the mineral-rich central tundra. It wants a second road from Manitoba up into Hudson Bay communities such as Arviat and Rankin Inlet.

The territory is also waiting for construction to begin on a port for Iqaluit and a smaller harbour for Pond Inlet on the northern tip of Baffin Island. Funding had been promised by the Conservatives and affirmed by the new Liberal government.